mistercastro's Design Portfolio

Reel 2012 It's been a productive couple of years since I graduated, having work broadcasted nationally, shorts screened internationally, worked in New Zealand, meetings in Australia, awards nominated all over the place and finally coming home again. This is my showreel. 2012 Animation, Art Direction
Baileys Blinds - Showtime TVC Bailey's Blinds wanted to stand out from every other window blinds company, so Family came to me to direct the Showtime TVC. With a very graphical look and feel, the aim was to feature large amounts of product in a friendly and memorable way. 2013 Art Direction, Directing, Graphic Design
iab Handbook Email connects more people, from more countries, quicker and easier than ever before in the history of mankind. So when the Internet Advertising Bureau wanted to produce their handbook on email, we wanted to emphasise this connectivity with the vast amount of information and scope it has. Think of it as techie join the dots.

Studio: O Street
Creative Director: David Freer
Design: Dan Castro/Andy Ostreet 2013 Graphic Design, Illustration, Print Design
Robbie Britton web presence Team GB Ultra marathon runner Robbie Britton needed to make himself more appealing to sponsors and raise awareness of his new coaching business. Designing the look and feel around the most valuable asset - himself.

This included photography, illustration and videos of his training sessions, all with a look and feel that set him apart from the rather corporate websites that dominate the sport.

[Wordpress theme developed by ThemeNectar] 2013 Digital Art, Directing, Film
D&ADs Useful Little Guide to the Student Awards D&AD needed 3 short films to help explain the Student Awards' entry process, and the benefits of entering, to students and young creatives in 2013. The films also needed to be entertaining, brightly coloured and quirky, whilst fitting clearly into the D&AD branding guidelines.

Direction/Illustration: mistercastro
Animation: Martin Craster
Music supplied by ExtremeMusic 2012 Animation, Art Direction, Graphic Design
Be Nice, Lovely Personal project on Murano sample book.

A little book of lovely things to say to no-one in particular. Because everyone needs something lovely every now and again. 2012 Art Direction, Graphic Design, Illustration
Opera Offstage The Musicians Benevolent Fund needed a calendar producing that would increase the charity's revenue. They wanted something that showed an insight into that rarest of beasts - a diva offstage. Or rather, 12 divas. 2012 Art Direction, Graphic Design
Naked Sheep Wine WINNER INTERBRAND INTERNAL BEST PACKAGING AWARD 2013

Glen Cairn merino shearing station in the South Island of New Zealand needed branding for their limited-edition premium wine. As a company that de-robes and tags sheep for a living, we thought it only fitting that this came across in the name and design of the packaging.

So Naked Sheep Wine, with its iconic sheep tag label and box made from and authentic farm fence post, was born.

Client: CairnStation
Agency: Interbrand
Creative/Art Direction: Lorenz Perry, Nathan Chambers, Simon Byers
Concept: Dan Castro
Design: Simon Byers, Manuel Payan, Dan Castro, Stephanie Tan 2012 Graphic Design, Packaging
#sketchswap We worked with Brooklyn-based Illustrator Mike Perry to help raise as much money for his Kickstarter-funded exhibition Wondering Around Wandering as possible, on a brief Work Club set us as part of D&AD's Graduate Academy.

Client: Mike Perry/Work Club

Creative team: Amelie Kam, Steven Kelly, Sarah Hardcastle, Zac Davidson, Josh King, Hwasoo Shim, mistercastro 2012
The Light Jake Morley's album "Many Fish To Fry" (in all good record shops now) was released with an accompanying DVD, on which were several live tracks, interviews and music videos.

Having seen examples of my work online Jake came to me, even though I was on another continent, and asked if I could turn some of my sketched ideas into a video for the track. The personal nature of the song meant that I didn't want a visual story to be told over the words, and Jake liked the idea of elements being familiar to him.

The piece went on the album and was used in web promotion of the album. 2012 Animation, Art Direction, Music
Castro Comes Home Whilst travelling it's often quite difficult to keep in touch with people back home and let them know what you're up to. And of course, always looking for excuses to film and edit, I decided the easiest thing to do would be to combine all the excitement of my trip into a video.

Then when it came to return, I created a promotional short informing everyone of my return - it was easier than repeating to everyone what date I got home. Film
Castro Goes Kiwi BEST IN YEAR
D&AD Student Awards 2012

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Social Media project in association with THL and Backpacker Campervans, New Zealand. Kiwis are incredibly patriotic and proud of their country, and everyone has their favourite holiday spots, more often than not off the beaten track.

Instead of taking a travel guide with me, I aimed to find as many of these hidden gems as possible through the use of Facebook and Twitter, keeping track of the whole experience via a blog at http://castrogoeskiwi.tumblr.com.

The project gained huge press coverage, from web, print and radio, along with several celebrity shouts and endorsements. 2012 Animation, Copywriting, Motion Graphics
The Saatchi Experiment NOMINATION
D&AD Student Awards 2012

FINALIST
Young Guns Digital Awards 2011

WINNER
Chip Shop Awards 2011

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As a recent graduate I felt that Saatchi & Saatchi were selling the intelligence of their Summer Scholarship applicants short by asking them to complete mundane tasks instead of nurturing their creativity.

So I lied and said I worked for Saatchi & Saatchi London to get their attention. This is what happened. 2011 Advertising, Animation, Social media
Lindauer Promo For their 30th birthday Lindauer tasked us with creating some limited edition packaging for their special bottles of bubbly. So we literally hand crafted a small number of boxes, making every single one unique.

I was then tasked with documenting the process and creating a promotional video for the project as a whole, telling the story of what we did and why. 2012 Advertising, Packaging
Frusion Promo Video Corporate video for new kiwi soft drink Frusion. DDB/Lion Nathan. 2012 Animation, Branding
Six Degrees Sea Convincing everyone that swimming in the North Sea in December is a good idea is hard to do. With a low temperature of 6 degrees centigrade, that seems reasonable.

But I'm always up for a challenge. So I turned it into an event. Posters went up around university with minimal information on them, relying heavily on word-of-mouth. It was a risk, but a fortuitous one.

With a merry band of wetsuit-clad followers we dived into the ice cold depths, on a beach covered in snow, for what can only be described as a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
2012 Digital Art, Print Design
STV iPad Pitch In order to secure funding for a new line of iPads STV needed a presentation that would demonstrate just how indispensable to the team the new tech would be.

So what better way to do that than using the tablets themselves? But with such a tight deadline there was no time to program an app or an real elements of interactivity, so I went back to interactive basics and engaged the board through video played on an iPad itself. 2011 Advertising, Animation, Motion Graphics
Ecologic WINNER
Green Apple Award 2012

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Briefed by PangaeaTV to create an animated section of their renewable-energy film Ecologic. The film was an educational tool for the South West of England.

Provided with a script I animated and edited the piece, adding animated characters digitally. 2012 Animation, Cartooning
Keegan Alexander Auckland-based law firm Keegan Alexander has 6 partners and 3 assistants in the firm, all of whom are specialists in what they do. They also focus heavily on a partnership between company and client, rather than two separate entities. The rebrand then focussed heavily on the idea of partnerships that work well, alongside a bold and simple approach to the corporate identity itself. 2012 Branding, Graphic Design
STV Creative Website Corporate and creative web design for STVcreative.co.uk 2012 Interaction Design, Web Design
Merry Christmas Pangaea Pangaea TV's Digital Christmas card circa 2010 2012 Animation, Art Direction, Branding
For Your Convenience Short film promoting hygiene and handwashing in Western society. Entry to Golden Poo Awards 2009. 2012 Animation, Copywriting, Directing
How To Sex Designed as not only a film but a full project concept, How To Sex is episode 4 in the hit 1980s educational television series Who What How, and comes with a Pupil’s Workbook, in which the pupil can complete exercises whilst learning alongside the video, and a Teacher’s Edition, a printed version of the development blog.

The whole development process, from concept to awards submissions, was charted on this blog at http://www.howtosex.co.uk. 2012 Animation, Film
Your Belly Needs Doritos Doritos King of Ads 2010 competition entry. 2012 Advertising, Animation